The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship responded swiftly to the recent crises in Orlando. From pastoral care to providing care packages to a variety of other services, churches and individuals affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship really stepped up. These actions should be commended.
Unfortunately, the care and services provided are not the entirety of the story. For every LGBTQ person the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship touched this last week, we know there is at least one thing they didn’t hear, “You’re hired.” While Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leaders expressed their grief about the dozens who died, they didn’t admit that they would’ve discriminated against them in life. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship maintains blatantly hateful homophobic policies.
As Baptist Christians, we believe that the foundation of a Christian sexual ethic is faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman and celibacy in singleness. We also believe in the love and grace of God for all people, both for those who live by this understanding of the biblical standard and those who do not. We treasure the freedom of individual conscience and the autonomy of the local church, and we also believe that congregational leaders should be persons of moral integrity whose lives exemplify the highest standards of Christian conduct and character.
Because of this organizational value, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship does not allow for the expenditure of funds for organizations or causes that condone, advocate or affirm homosexual practice. Neither does this CBF organizational value allow for the purposeful hiring of a staff person or the sending of a missionary who is a practicing homosexual.
-Adopted by the Coordinating Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, October 2000
The hypocrisy is beyond stunning. As the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meets in Greensboro, North Carolina next week, let’s pray that they save themselves from their hateful homophobia.
Amen.
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